HellStuck
by Asseziuh
Summary: After a gruesome battle, Dave the Angel has found himself stuck in hell. It seems he might be able to make his way out; if of course, he can stomach working with Karkat the Demon. (Rated M for content in later chapters)


**A.N. Hello there sweeties! I haven't been around for quite a bit, so thank you for those who have stuck with me. This story may seem familiar in certain ways, and different in others. This is a rewrite of a story I originally started in June of last year, but never got around to properly updating or keeping up with. But, after a nice reminder from a reader who was kind enough to send me a message, I decided to revamp this old piece of work! Without further ado, the story itself!**

Dave was fucked. Royally and properly fucked. Heat pooled and swirled around him, it's waves of reflection making glorious patterns and loops that could be dared called beautiful. The red rock was hard under him as he licked his dried lips, pushing himself onto his elbows. None of this was any good, and he knew that even in the best case scenario, he wasn't getting out of this without serious injury and consequence. Of all places to be, Angels did not belong in Hell.

His domain, rather, lied in the heavens. Of the warrior class, Dave Strider was considered an Elite; just one short rank away from being considered Legendary. His role typically was to maintain order within the Angels and their constant squabbles, and to retrieve wrongly sorted souls from Hell. It proved simple enough for the most part, with the Angels being much less powerful than him and easy to control, and his allies being sharp and with good amounts of instinct. In general he had it pretty good, reaping the rewards of being a hard worker and admirable person.

Sometimes Dave wished that all Angels were as morally acute as he was. It seemed that everything had recently changed to being all about following guidelines and rules. Souls that had good outweighing the bad would be turned away for breaking some code that was considered to be more important than general justice and kindness. Dave didn't really agree with it, and it was causing more problems than it was fixing anything. Nowadays he was going on more missions in hell, all for petty souls that should've just been admitted in the first place. It was getting on his nerves, and he was starting to question the overall authority of the Legendaries.

All of that really didn't matter now. He was stuck in the pit of the universe, the one place where light would never shine. It was very unlikely he'd make it for more than another hour there, given his current state. Blood was gushing from his side, its golden shine beauty and death entwined. It dripped onto the rocks as he stood, pain coursing up his body as he stumbled forward, pausing on a tall rock to catch his breath from the physical exertion. He could see entities creeping up around him, looking at him in confusion as they tried to figure out what he was. It wouldn't be long before more powerful creatures were upon him, and he knew quite well that it would herald his end.

The mission he had gone on should've been simple enough. With all of the souls being wrongly sorted, it was becoming petty work to steal them back from the lesser demons that preyed on them. They had arrived to a scene of brutal ferality; evil creatures fighting over the lost soul in such a grotesque way. Dave saw this every time he delved into the realm of despair, but it never ceased to disgust him. Such filth was the bane of his pure existence, and if it were his decision, he would slaughter it all without a second thought. But he was not honored with such decision making, and he was better as a follower anyways.

They had started their assault, swords raised as they charged in, breaking up the vile critters into groups as they started their attacks. It was easy, and Dave was able to fend them off without even breaking a sweat. With the group behind him, he was virtually unstoppable; an Angel of the Lord sent to do his and only his bidding. He was confident in his work and in himself, and it made him one of the best at what he did.

All had been well, the collection running smoothly and well, when trouble struck surely as a waiting tiger. A gruesome looking demon was climbing over the bend, causing a bit of panic and fear within his team. It was unusual for a demon that powerful to be interested in such a small soul, but Dave was assured that his team would be fine. That was, of course, until the sound of a teleport shattered the hope in his heart. He turned in shock to see the dwindling glow of a transport as one of his team abandoned him. He watched in horror as he tried hard to keep his ground as all of his teammates each teleported away, and there was just him and one other Angel remained. Dave was now close to panicking himself, as they were surrounded and routed, but he was too stubborn to let his mission fail. But, as he turned to glance at the last Angel, his last saving grace, he saw the guilty look in his eye. He knew what was going to happen before it did, but he still cried out as both the angel teleported away and the nasty demon slashed his side.

Gritting his teeth in agony, Dave took another shaky step forward. He was too wounded to portal away like the others. He should've left when everyone else had panicked, abandoned the mission when he had a chance. Now he was left to die alone, without even the soul he had gone out to collect in the first place. He hadn't had the strength to fight off the demons, and they had gone back to fighting over the soul like he didn't even exist. It was all he could do to stumble away like he had, in pain and hating his own existence. It was just like him to be too stubborn and true to his cause to even think of saving himself. And just look where it had gotten him.

It only made him more aggravated that this had been such a small collection. Such a miniscule thing, to take him down into the depths with it. He could feel his life draining out of him as he keeled over, hardly registering his hands scraping up against the hot rock as his vision blurred. Lifting his head one last time, he observed the dark figure stalking its way towards him as he slowly wasted away. This was it, he was sure. The end of the great tale of Dave the Angel.

Too bad it was only the beginning of a much greater story.

**)0o0(**

For someone who was meant to dwell only in the hottest of places, Karkat was always very cold. Whether it was just due to pure chance, biological chemistry, or just another level of the damnation inflicted by the ruler of the realm, the Demon was not aware. All he really did know is that it really fucking annoyed him. Like of all the things he hated about being doomed to suffer eternally, it had to be how god damn cold he was all the time. He spent all his time shivering and sniveling and wishing to find a place that wasn't only lukewarm like everywhere else seemed to be.

He had, after so long of searching, found a nice spot to settle down and get warm. Curling up for a nap, he had finally felt his whole body heating up pleasantly in a way that he hadn't felt in eons. It made him tingle from his toes all the way up to his scalp, and for a quiet moment, he felt entirely at peace with himself and even the annoying world around him.

This was, of course, until he was completely interrupted by a lot of clattering and clanging from nearby.

From the sounds of it, it seemed to be an angel fight. Karkat was very well prepared to go back on with his life (Death? Afterlife?), but he was surprised when it started to quiet down very quickly. Moving his head up to hear a little better, he could make out only a few distinct noises; the clattering and yelling of angels fighting off Demons, and teleporting noises. Soon the ruckus was all but completely gone, and it was safe to assume that all of the angels had zapped themselves away from the fight like the cowards they were. Angels were always abandoning things halfway through nowadays, it seemed.

Something told Karkat that this wasn't entirely what it seemed though. It was too abrupt, too random to just be a regular flee. There was something off about it that he could sense in the pit of his gut, something familiar about it that he just couldn't place. Either way, he wasn't getting back to sleep anytime soon; lesser demons were already starting to swarm the warmer spot, and there was no way he was gonna fight over something so small and inconsequential to his existence.

He stood, stretching quite a bit like a cat as he got ready to venture towards the site of the annoyance. It was just like angels to ruin his time, but hell, maybe something interesting was going on after all. Sometimes weird things did happen, even in hell. So, with the mentality to check out whatever had the great audacity to be a nuisance, Karkat made his way over the red rocked bend that stood in the way of him seeing what was going on.

The scene he saw when he arrived over the hill was downright gruesome. Golden glowing blood spattered the rocks, leading a trail up to a half collapsed angel that was obviously very badly wounded. He could see the gold ooze dripping through his fingers as the angel clutched his side in pain, and he wondered for a moment what it felt like. Karkat was sure he had felt pain at one point in his existence, but he didn't think he remembered what it felt like at all. Such an arbitrary feeling.

The scars that zigzagged up his back tingled as Karkat watched the angel in stunned curiosity, wondering what he should do. In all reality, he should've left the angel to die. Left him to carry out his fate of becoming another pile of bones in a place filled with death. But Karkat didn't do what he should've done. Karkat never ever did what he should do, but rather what he felt like. And right then, he was feeling merciful.

So began the journey of Karkat the Demon to save Dave the Angel.

)0o0(

**A.N. Thank you much for reading! I think I like this a lot better than the original draft. Reviews are always appreciated! Expect more to come!**


End file.
